


Assassin of the heart

by Avidfangirlforlife



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 21:04:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15804552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avidfangirlforlife/pseuds/Avidfangirlforlife
Summary: An AU in which Regina is an assassin sent after Emma, an ex- assassin who ran away.





	Assassin of the heart

It is late one December night when Emma Swan finds herself staring down the barrel of a gun. It is pointed at the bridge of her nose and the safety isn’t on. She finds herself thinking that if it were to be fired it would probably make a pretty spectacular mess. This isn’t exactly a new situation for her.

She keeps the sneer that is painted on her face firmly in place, or in the very least she tries to, and her eyes barely flicker to the deadly object aimed at her face before they close. It doesn’t phase her for even a second, because she refuses to let if. If tonight is the night that she is destined to die, then tonight she will die. Her training dictates that she won’t flinch. She won’t even consider flinching. She hasn’t flinched away from a gun in nearly fifteen years. It isn’t likely, with how deeply ingrained into her being her training is, that she will start now.

The last time she had flinched away from a gun had been nearly fifteen years ago. At the time she had been ten. She still bears the scars that staying still is the better solution. Staying put will probably get her killed. She will probably die anyway. At least if she doesn’t move, if she seems unmoved by fear (which she genuinely is), she gets to die with dignity. They can’t take that away from her.

Over the years they had slowly stripped away everything that made Emma herself. They had beaten and shaped her into an entirely new being, but she always got to keep her dignity. In some shape or form, in the very least. Her dignity still existed. She has grown far too stubborn and proud to flinch away from an object. Even if said object is a deadly loaded and primed weapon aimed at her by an assassin.

The woman aiming said weapon at her head had presumably been sent by the agency. Eventually she knew that they would have to catch up with her. When you run away, chasing freedom and a simpler life, they always did. Freedom was for other beings. 

For a split second, she had convinced herself that she was truly free. The agency had taken their sweet time to catch up with her. So long, in fact, that Emma had started to become less paranoid about them catching her. So, of course, now they had caught up to her in the absolute cruellest of ways. 

Emma couldn’t tell you how it had happened. She genuinely could not tell you how the woman before her had slipped past her carefully crated barriers. How she had torn down every wall that Emma had put up. She didn’t know how any of it had happened. She just knew that it had.

Over time Emma had been trained to always watch her back. The Agency had one golden rule: do not, under any circumstances, let somebody close to you. Keep everyone away and then nobody could hurt you. Immediately be suspicious of any individual who tried to get past your defences and work their way into your life. This time she had failed epically in that.

For a mere second she had let her guard down. A second was all it had taken for this woman to scale every wall she had ever put up and gain access. Which was a feat that had never before been achieved.  
She can’t even how imagine how pissed The Agency must have been when she slipped off the radar. She knew she was a prime asset, but still. Neal at topside must have taken it rather personally. He must have thought it was a rejection of his less than gentlemanly advances, seen as her mark had clearly been given explicit instructions.

The woman before her had known exactly how to work her. She had known what to say and when to say it, and she had managed to make everything seem so real. Stupidly, so bloody foolishly, Emma had let her do just that. Not even once had Emma tried to stop her. She had been enjoying the whole thing far too much to put an end to it.

Looking back, Emma can see how every moment had been a lie. Every single move the woman had made had been carefully calculated, as though it had been thought out down to the last detail. The woman had pretended to be as bad at personal stuff as Emma. Yet everything she had done, throughout their “relationship”, had been perfect. The worst part was that Emma had let herself be blind, she had let herself not see, all because she had not wanted to.

For once, just for once, in the exhausting lie that was her life, she had wanted to not expect the worst. She hadn’t wanted to see what was right in front of her nose. So she had blatantly ignored it.  
At times her gut, her killer instincts, had told her that something was very wrong. Every time she had ignored it. She had pushed down the feeling of nausea that sometimes rose within her. She had tamped down on it and told herself that it wasn’t a thing. Just for once, this once, her gut feeling had to be wrong. It just had to be.

She had let herself be blissfully happy. In a bubble, she had ignored the cruel and hateful world around her. Her and the woman before her had existed in their own little world and it had been so wonderful. Emma had been happy. The problem with bubbles, she was now finding, was that they are very fragile. Too much pressure and they had a tendency to burst wide open.

A part of her had known. She had always known. It had to come to an end, good things in her life always did. The end of this good thing, the one that she had clung onto with everything she was, was her dead on the ground. That was the life of an assassin, especially if you were a prime asset. If you were good at what you did, they would never let you go. The problem was Regina. The woman before her was the one person on the planet that she couldn’t bring herself to kill.

Topside at the agency had evidently taken note of her suspected proclivities. They had been evil and calculating enough to ensure that the abrasive and beautiful woman was who they sent. How they had been sure of her working her way under the ex-assassin’s skin, she wasn’t sure. But they must have known that she would.

Today it had been a full year since their first meeting. Or, as Regina had always insisted on calling it, their first date. Since then Emma had been on a landslide. It had sent her sprawling headfirst into falling for the other woman. It had take no time at all for Emma to realise that she loved Regina. Even though they had known very little about each other.

The two of them had agreed not to discuss their pasts, thinking that they were far too troubling for the other to handle. Emma could have lied to Regina. She could have chosen from the array of back stories that she had at her disposal. As well as that, she had ample experience at lying. She knew every one of her back stories like the back of her hand, inside and out.

Such a thing came in very handy during interrogations. As assassin had to be able to lie through their teeth on order to seem innocent. To convince someone of their innocence, even when the facts pointed to otherwise. If your captors managed to ply even one little detail about your life or your mission, it was all over. If your captors didn’t kill you then the agency would. Emma had never lied to Regina. To do so felt incredibly wrong.

Before Regina, Emma had never loved another person. Not in any way or shape or form. Even so, she had known from a mix of intuition and the sinking feeling in her gut that lying to Regina would be something she would never forgive herself for.

Now, she knew, that was all Regina had done to her for months. She had been lying through her fucking teeth, almost endlessly. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Emma had been stupid enough to believe her. Regina had fed her lie after lie, weaving her bed around Emma. And like a complete and utter fool Emma had fallen for every word.

When, in the middle of the night, Regina had breathed an “I love you” into the darkness Emma had believed her. The other woman’s voice had been halting and the way it had wavered made it impossible for Emma to doubt. She had believed her, because how could she not?

She had believed every word that had spilled from Regina’s lips. Every time the two of them day dreamed about a future together. Every time Regina had talked of marriage and a baby boy named Henry, Emma had bought every word. She had no idea how she could have been so naïve. Especially given that Regina had been planning to kill her all along.

Emma had been stupid enough to believe every little lie to pass Regina’s bright red and very kissable lips. Regina had seen her at her most vulnerable. Regret coursed through her when she thought of the other woman seeing her in her weakest moments. When the nightmares had come, she had let the other woman hold her. She had let the other woman console her. Never before had she let someone near enough for that.

Regina had seen her weep like a child, and Emma had been relieved that she hadn’t run. It had been a show of exactly how much she cared about Emma. Emma had believed it. It had been exactly what she needed.

Emma Swan isn’t scared of dying. Oh no, she has never feared death. The gun pointed at the middle of her forehead doesn’t bother her in the slightest. If she is to die then so be it. Death, as a concept, was something that Emma had learnt to accept a long time ago.

As a person who made a life for herself by ending those of other people, she had to be comfortable with it. Over the years, she had killed so many people. At not even a quarter of a century old, she had killed one hundred and forty three people. While she felt no remorse for her actions, she knew her kill count was exceptionally high. When it came to death, she was detached unto the last. Even if the death in question was her own.

No, the death part of the situation she was in didn’t bother her in the slightest. That didn’t matter because it was rather inconsequential. It was the betrayal and the heart break that did bother her. A part of her had known right from hello why Regina had appeared in her life. She had felt it from that first moment (her instincts were what had set her apart at the academy that had come before the agency). That didn’t make the betrayal any easy to swallow.

Yes, she had known who and what Regina was. But she had still convinced herself otherwise. The betrayal was agony to her. It hurt far more than the idea of her inevitable death. She wished that Regina would hurry up and pull the trigger. Get it over with. It seemed foolish, even to her, but she was beginning to grow impatient. She didn’t like having to wait to be killed like a lamb for slaughter.

Still, she had to hand it to Regina, she was a pretty amazing liar. The fact that she was better than Emma was really saying something. Then again, Regina was amazing at everything she did, so it really shouldn’t surprise Emma. Every lie she had fed to Emma had sounded so true. Everything had seemed so natural. But it had all been a lie.

One big, very convincing, heart breaking lie. 

Tonight, the two of them were supposed to be celebrating their one year anniversary. She had been so excited. All day she had found herself anticipating how the two of them were celebrating. Upon arriving at Regina’s flat, she had found a very different situation from the one she had been expecting awaiting her.

Regina had been lying in wait for her, and not in an at all pleasant way. She had barely been through the front door of the apartment, had barely kicked it shut behind her, before she had felt a gun being pressed to her head. Somehow, she had been blindsided by it.

All the fight had gone out of her. Immediately, she had felt her knees giving out from under her and she had sagged to the floor, defeated. There was no way she would allow herself to fight back. She was expendable, but she had finally succeeded in no longer being the monster The Agency had created.

That, when combined with her love for the assassin before her, meant that there was no way she would let herself hurt Regina. The Agency would love it if she hurt her. She would not give them the satisfaction. Knowing that she had still been their creation in her final moments, with no moral compass, would have made the operators in topside very happy. That was something Emma was not prepared to do.

Even after every last bit of betrayal, Emma was not capable of hurting Regina. Without putting up a fight, she would let whatever was supposed to happen, happen. That had been two hours ago. But somehow, for some reason, she was still alive. Regina was still yet to kill her. To say that her patience was wearing thin, as well as her ability to sit still, was an understatement of massive proportions.  
She could feel herself starting to waver. After what feels like an eternity, she opens her eyes and looks at Regina.

The gun, once perfectly still, had started to tremble against her forehead. Emma was certain that it was purely due to exertion. It wasn’t as though Regina could be affected by the idea, could she? To get attached to a mark was the biggest error an assassin could make.

With the utmost certainty, Emma knew that Regina didn’t feel anything substantial for her. Emma was unable to harm Regina, in any way or shape or form. She hadn’t even put up a fight when facing a gun aimed at her head, for god’s sake. Evidently, Regina had very few qualms about hurting Emma. After all, she did have a gun pointed at her head.

Finally, Emma found that she had worked up the courage to look at Regina. Slowly, she raises her eyes as far as she can. She doesn’t want to tilt her head. The worst thing she could do is move her head and startle Regina into shooting her.

Immediately, she can feel the regret well up within her. The sight she comes across sets her heart thumping in her chest. The woman before her has her eyes tightly screwed shut, swollen with the tears that are seeping between the cracks and running down her face. Her bottom lip is trembling wildly even though it is being tightly clasped between Regina’s teeth. It almost looks as though she is desperate to stop it, even as she can’t quite seem to.

From her position on the floor, Emma can see Regina’s shoulders shaking furiously. She stands before her and sobs silently. She can see why Regina’s arm was trembling as she clasped the gun that was pressed to Emma’s forehead. With every second Emma could feel her heart break a little more.

Finally, Emma found it within herself to speak. She could hear how strained her voice had become from the emotion she was trying to keep in check. Emotion, she reminded herself, was weakness. The problem was, Emma thought, that she didn’t mind being weak where Regina was concerned. Especially not if she was about to die. “Regina, just do it.”

With a gasp and a sharp intake of breath, almost as though startled out of a reverie, Regina gazed down at her. Even from down on the floor Emma could see the confusing mixture of emotion swirling in Regina’s watery eyes. With a blink, the emotion vanished and Regina’s arm steadied, a chalk covered slate being wiped clean.

Emma closes her eyes once again and prepared herself for the shot that would abruptly end her rather short and unfulfilled life. With eyes her tightly closed the image of Regina, her Regina (although she supposed that Regina had never truly been hers), remained burned into the back of her eyelids. Images of their year spend together flashed before her eyes. Images of blissful happiness, rather than her entire dismal life, burned through her mind with dizzying speeds.

A constant mantra of I-love-you coursed through her head. Determined that her last thought would be about the one person she had ever loved, she focused upon it completely. She wanted the last thing she ever felt to be something as pure as the love she felt for the woman in front of her.

So deep within her thoughts, Emma managed to miss the sound of a gun being cocked. Regina had put the safety back on. She did, however, feel the gun being lowered from her forehead.  
Curiously, she allowed herself to look up at Regina. It shocked her to her core that Regina looked both broken and disbelieving. With a dull thud the gun fell from Regina’s grasp and landed against the carpeted floor. Soon after this was followed by the owner of said gun as she fell gracelessly to the floor.

Somehow, Emma managed to catch her before she did any serious damage to herself. To most, Emma finds herself thinking, it would be strange that she could still hold the other woman against her in a comforting embrace. She does just that though. She holds the other woman gently as she breaks down completely, every ounce of her steely reserve gone. She holds Regina when she hears the other woman sob, because she could not fight the instinct to do so even if she wanted to.

With a broken look on her face, Regina brings her hands up to rest on either side of Emma’s face. She looks Emma in the eye with such a sharp intensity, such a searching and penetrating look, that Emma can’t help but feel how profound it is. Her gaze bores into Emma, compelling her to understand. She whispers two words, almost disbelieving in their tome. “I can’t.”

After an immeasurable amount of time, Regina pulls herself together enough to stop sobbing like a child in Emma’s arms. She glances at the clock almost absently and the change in her after that is almost instantaneous. She flies up and out of the warmth and comfort of Emma’s arms. She flits around her apartment, gathering items as she goes.

Emma knows the look on her face. It is the look of someone desperate to escape. Desperate to escape before it is too late to do so. For a mere second, she pauses in front of Emma, considering what to do. With a look of utter panic on her face, she grabs Emma by the arm and draws her to her feet.

If Emma hadn’t grasped just how dire the situation they are in is, she would have most probably laughed. Frazzled Regina makes for a rather good show, because she is rather endearing. Emma can sense just how serious the situation is, she can read it in the tense way Regina holds herself, so she doesn’t even consider laughing.

Rather, she follows Regina’s example. She begins to gather all of her things that have accumulated throughout Regina’s apartment over the past year. She finds herself surprised by how much stuff she has there. Because there is a lot of it.

For a quarter of an hour her and Regina work feverishly, gathering their belongings. She finds herself thinking about how well they work together in tandem, which strikes her as odd, when she really doesn’t know what is going on.

After a while, Emma finds herself watching Regina. She watches as the other woman flicks a switch that Emma had never noticed before. A compartment opens under the kitchen island counter, emerging seamlessly. In the compartment there are two forged passports, both of which are remarkable copies.

Emma can tell, with her well trained eye, that they could pass airport security and not be questioned in the slightest. There are passports for the both of them, which Emma notes is strange, but it isn’t something to be questioned in the moment. As well as the passports there is a substantial amount of money that cannot be Agency provided. Emma finds herself raising an eyebrow at the huge array of weapons, all of which she had mastered more than a decade ago.

Emma watches as, once again, Regina glances at the clock. The nervous energy that had overtaken her seems to leave her slightly. As Emma watches Regina releases a breath and seems to relax slightly, her tense shoulders losing some of their taut hunch.

She sits on the coach, looking very small, and it worries Emma that she seems to have lost some of her presence. She gestures for Emma to join her and after a moment’s hesitation, she does. Regina looks at her, the look of surprise buried within her features immense. Emma surmises that it is probably due to the level of trust she shows towards the other woman.

It is surprising, she supposes. After all, she had just attempted to kill her, but Emma understands. She wishes she didn’t, she wishes that she had become further removed from The Agency. But she hasn’t. And it means that she understands. Regina had been assigned a mission. That mission had been to kill her and make the process painful.

With a heavy sigh, Regina turns away from her, stops looking at her completely. She stops looking at Emma, but she does reach out for her hand, hesitant in her movements, also as though she doesn’t know whether such a thing is allowed. In the smallest of voices, she launches into an explanation. Halting and quavering, Emma doesn’t quite recognise the voice she hears as that of the woman whom had stolen her heart.

“I am so, so sorry Emma. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Things weren’t supposed to go this far between us. You were just another mark. I was supposed to get into your life and make your death hurt. Topside wanted it personal. I’m not sure why, but they did. Last night was the deadline, but I couldn’t kill you. I love you Emma, and I couldn’t kill you. A team are on their way to do a sweep, and they’re expecting to find you dead. Unless we’re long gone when they get here we’re both dead.”

It takes a second for her to register exactly what is being said to her. What Regina is suggesting makes her slightly breathless. “Wait, what are you saying? You want to run? You realise that, once you start, you can’t stop?”

“I didn’t want to, but I think I have to. I can’t kill you, so there isn’t much else to be done. I was wondering, if you could you find it in yourself to forgive me, would you like to come with me? I don’t have the right to ask, I know, but I feel the need to.”

There is a hopeful look in her eyes, and despite everything Emma can’t imagine leaving the other woman.

“You were doing your job, so there is nothing to forgive. I’m coming with you. I refuse to let them anywhere near you.”

For a very long moment Regina studies her. There are tears welling up in her eyes that manage to silently spill over. Tenderly, Emma wipes them away with the pads of her thumbs before standing and   
pulling Regina up with her. Emma stares at Regina for a moment before pulling away. She grabs the duffel bags at the far end of the coach and hoists them up onto her shoulder.

With a grin aimed at Regina, she offers her a hand. With one hand, she pulls the other woman to her firmly. Somehow, even with Regina kissing her, she manages to keep a hold of the bags with her free hand. Emma kisses the woman before her soundly before pulling away, a wide smile spread across her face.

Hands firmly clasped, Regina leads Emma out of the door. Pushing her keys under the door jamb, the two of them hurry down the corridor, Regina in the lead and Emma in tow.

Sometime later the two of them arrive at the airport. Emma has to admit to herself that abandoning her yellow bug smarts somewhat, even if it is very necessary. She can see Regina beginning to worry about whether their forged passports will hold up under scrutiny. Somehow she senses the other woman’s apprehension reaching peak levels, so she sweeps her up in her arms.

She spins Regina around in her arms and she hears the sweetest of sounds. Regina laughs, and for a moment she sounds breathless and free. For a moment, just a moment, the two of them forget that they are on the run, with their lives at stake if they are caught. And for Emma, being able to make Regina forget so that she can be happy, makes the running more than worthwhile.

The two of them stop spinning and Emma comes to a standstill with Regina still in her arms. Feeling lips at the corner of her mouth, a huge smile spreads its way across her face. Perhaps stupidly, she can’t quite seem to bring herself to care that the two of them are on the run from an assassin organisation. She can’t bring herself to care that they are high on the priority list, as two runaway primary assets. She can’t even bring herself to care that they have eyes everywhere and could be watching right now.

Instead of caring Emma revels in how alive she feels with Regina in her arms, with Regina’s lips on her lips. She feels alive after years of emptiness, and for that and a giddy smile flashed in her direction from Regina, she will take the uncertainty of running again. She will run with this woman at her side.

Heart racing in her chest and hand clasped firmly by the woman at her side, Emma raises her eyes to examine the boards. She imagines all of the possible destinations they could take off too, together.  
Regina looks at her, a question in her eyes and on her lips.

“Where would you like to go dear?”

Emma looks right back and, with a smile that seems to grow even more, answers.

“Anywhere. Absolutely anywhere, so long as I’m with you.”


End file.
